1. Field of the Invention
This application relates generally to improving the aesthetic look and feel of products formed by welding at least two pieces of metal together. Such products can include, for example, furniture, automobiles, and housings suitable for accommodating electronic devices such a computers and consumer electronics. In particular, this application describes welding operations that create visually seamless welds.
2. Description of the Related Art
The art of joining at least two metal pieces together includes such processes as welding in its many forms. However, most applications whereby separate pieces of metal are joined are focused more on the strength of the bond and less on the appearance of the bond. If, however, the appearance of the bond is important, it will often be precisely welded and then painted (such as a bicycle frame), precisely welded, ground down, and then painted (such as a car frame). Currently, there is trend in consumer electronic products (such as computers and hand held devices) to use materials that are both strong, resilient and aesthetically pleasing. One such material is aluminum that has the ability to be formed into any number of suitable shapes, anodized to provide a protective coat that is also pleasing to the eye, and provide an overall aesthetically pleasing experience to the user.
However, when using aluminum to create enclosures, such as a housing for a computer assembly, several separate pieces of aluminum must be joined together. Some of these joined pieces are clearly visible to a user of the computer. Any visible artifact (such as a noticeable seam, variation in color, variation in surface texture) can distract from the overall aesthetic appearance of the consumer product. Clearly these visible artifacts are not acceptable when a computer manufacturer places a high value on both the strength of the bond and the appearance of the housing.
Although the prior art effectively discloses any number of techniques for joining together at least two metal pieces, there is still a need for a metal joining technique that provides a strong as well as apparently seamless metal joint.